Bus driver accused of slapping boy not charged

none

Ashkenaz Gill

December 15, 2010 1:54:50 PM PST

WAKE COUNTY --

The Wake County school bus driver accused of slapping a 5-year-old student will not be facing any charges.The district attorney announced Wednesday that he did not have enough evidence to prosecute Askenaz Gill.

The announcement comes after a father of a Wake County 5-year-old special needs student said Gill slapped his son on the face on the way home from Wendell Elementary School last month.

Mark Tourscher told ABC11 Eyewitness News that his son Cory's face was bright red that afternoon and still bruised three days later.

"Whole face was red, you could see where it's beet red," said Tourscher on Nov. 8. "I asked what happened and he burst out crying saying the bus driver hit him."

Gill denied the claims and said the child may have gotten bruised while crawling around on the moving bus.

"I never hit his son, because he was crawling under the seat, maybe he hurt from seats, somebody else, the other kids [sic]," said Gill to ABC11 on Nov. 18.

Days after the incident, Wake County Schools announced Gill resigned when the school system cited him for making an unauthorized stop.

However, Gill told ABC11 that he did not realize he was resigning from his job as a bus driver. He thought the paperwork he signed was for his termination, which meant he could not fight to get his job back.

A spokesperson for the school district released a statement saying, "This is a confidential personnel matter. The individual did voluntarily resign. Wake County Public School System's practice is to provide individuals a fair process and time to ask questions as to what their options might be in different situations."

Gill said he has a tough time with the English language and he had requested that his wife be present in the meeting with HR, but said his request was denied.